Now I'm a proponent of the free
culture movement; as such, I don't think the unofficial
use of Mickey Mouse's image in non-Disney media is
the slightest bit impertinent. You might therefore
be wondering why this short film has received such
an unprecedentedly low score. That's because it's
very, very bad on a technical level. The
plot, the characterisation, and the production values...
they all add up to zero.

On an island of happy and fantastical creatures,
the playful denizens enjoy a pleasurable life of fun
and frolic. Suddenly, a bat-riding mouse appears and
sends word that the island's fate is sealed. Invasion
is nigh, and when the islanders ignore his warning,
the mouse brings in reinforcements. A young girl is
kidnapped and chaos ensues. Will the hapless citizens
of this island paradise be able to find some way to
protect their homeland and their way of life from
impudent mousy imperialism?

Well, yes... yes they do. The lovable creatures quickly
turn the tides of war as they enlist the help of some
rather legendary friends from a Japanese picture book.
With a host of miscellaneous reinforcements on their
side, the deadly newcomers vanquish their verminly
foe and lift his fell siege.

Fight violence with violence... that's not exactly
a message one would want to be sending to children
under normal circumstances, but let's remember that
this was smack dab in the middle of a jingoistic,
military-centric zeitgeist. As a propaganda film,
this one is clearly designed to appeal to the very,
very young. Folks with zero knowledge of
Japanese will be able to follow along quite easily,
and those with rudimentary skills will likely be able
to piece together much of the rest.

Despite the advantage of very little region lockout
(at least linguistically speaking), the film fails
just about everywhere else. Characterisation is virtually
nonexistent; all we really know are that the evil-looking
invaders are the "bad guys" and the kinder-looking
folks are the "good guys". When we see the
Western representative invading and the Eastern representatives
defending... well my friends, you have all the makings
of perhaps one of the simplest forms of exposition
in cinematic history. Admittedly, there would
be a certain cultural advantage to knowing the backstories
of some of the storybook characters, but imagine if
this were an American cartoon and Paul Bunyan et al.
were summoned sans characterisation to defeat a Japanese
cultural symbol. The reliance on previous works for
exposition might similarly be deemed a detriment to
the potency of the narrative.

Technically, this picture is rather inferior by early
'30s standards. The audio and animation are noticeably
repetitive and look at least a few years
dated; think Steamboat Willie Invades! and
you'll get an idea of what you're up against here.
The jaunty music is perhaps the most redeeming aspect,
but since it lacks in the way of anything particularly
memorable, the score can't save this cartoon from
ye ol' goose egg.

Two more things worth mentioning: skeletonisation
and brief nudity. Yeah... I don't think this film
has a completely firm grasp on who its core audience
is...

Yes, I do realise this is an uncharacteristically
brief review for me, but it's a short critique of
a short film with very little in the way of redeeming
value. If you have a secret desire to see Mickey Mouse
get his tail handed to him by the Land of the Rising
Sun, maybe it is worth a look. Though I personally
love Disney films, even I got a kick out of that.
Omocha-Bako Series, Dai-3-Wa: Ehon 1936-nen...
recommended only as a novel curiosity.